Ambrose gives Jacob a sermon
Jacob says to Ambrose:
If the Grand T is the head of the entire church, then he is responsible for all that goes on in the church. He must stand for stated church policy within each of the orders. Thus, he agrees with execution for all heretics. Execution for any nonbeliever. Harsh methods including terror tactics to force the populace to follow Sigmar. Such are the methods of the church and as it's leader he is ultimately responsible for all this.
I anticipate you might tell me that the Grand T wishes to see the harshness of the Cleansing Flame lessened. Then as the head of the church it should have been done long ago! while he waits, we watched that good healer in Sturm's camp burned alive. while he waits peasants across the land are "cleansed". while he waits, orphans are created every day.
How can I trust this Grand T whom to this day would endorse the beheading of my family for not believing in the divinity of Sigmar. I am guilty of such heresy! The law has not changed! My penalty is death. Will I be put to death? you say "Possibly, maybe not", that's not very comforting.
Your mission is to determine if the Cleansing Flame is dealing in chaos magic. There is no mandate to lessen the harch methodologies, only to investigate possible chaos. If indeed the leader of 1/3 of the church is into chaos magic, then the Grand T is guilty of gross imcompetence. To use Hassan's argument...Ahmed hired incompetent marines? The Grand T has hired a Chaos socrcerer as the head of the Cleansing Flame! Holy shit, what incompetence!
How can I trust my very life to a Grand T whose laws state I should be executed, who is so incompetent that he could not detect chaos sitting at the table next to him for years?
And Ambrose replies:
Jacob, as you may know, the Church is not just a theological/spiritual body. It is also a politcal body. There is little seperation. It is nigh impossible to just come out to the public and say "Well, sorry. What we've been doing for last 1000 years is probably wrong and we are going to stop right now and change everything." Can't happen and won't happen. Things like that start more problems than it solves. With such a large body to govern, it will take longer to enact the changes you want. And you anticipate incorrectly my response. What I know is that Braun feels his position is threatened by Schatten. And the more power he gains the easier it will be to supplant Braun as the G.T. Yes, he is ultimately responsible for what the orders of the Church do and, yes, it is unfortunate that in order for things to change we do have to wait, and more will die. Do you think I do not know this (he says with a pained expression). And he also stated that, based on certain information that was not revealed to me, that Schatten himself may be dealing in Chaos and/or magic. It is my belief that your association with me in this mission will protect you. I have a very close friend in the Church who happens to be the Chief Historian and Librarian for the Temple. He was a close friend of my Grandfater who himself was a great Warrior-Priest of my order. He is close to my family. I believe it is these connections that will protect us.
About magic, what I think is my own. The G.T. did not speak of this to me. It is my own experiences. I have seen some possible evidence of "clean" magic, without Chaos. Magic from the Old Gods. There are others in this motley crew to whom you should speak about this. For me it is what I experienced but did not create. I have been driven to explore this by not only what has happened since we have been together, but because of this little pendant I wear. (he takes out of his shirt a pendant that at first might look like just some random design, very stylized. Upon closer inspection, and with Ambros to point it out, you notice a set of scales, a hammer, sword and the twin tailed comet over the background of a single flame. It is a little bit of a stretch to see all of these as the pendant is actually fairly worn and old.) It has been in my family for as long as my acestors stories can be remembered. About as far back as the time when Sigmar disappeared from this world. What I know is that this pendant icorporates symbolism of both the Old Goddess Verena and the newer Divine Sigmar. I have been searching for information about this connection since I went to the Temple at age 12. The only reference I have found was a sketch of some ruins in Bretonnia done by a wandering priest, of which a symbol like mine was seen on an archstone. This priest put this sketch in his book about his travels but makes no other mention of it. As you may be able to tell, my fear for my family is great, however my family is also big. Two of my brothers are in other Ranger-General armies, one as a priest and the other as a soldier. Yes, I am a heretic, if that is what you want to hear. But I stand by everything I, and we, have done so far. You may not trust the G.T. and the Church, and for good reason, but I am not asking you to trust him. I am asking you to trust me. If I let you down then I go down with you. But I believe there is something greater at stake here, something greater than our short lives and we have a chance to influence how it might go down. We need information. What I found here at the library is a start, but I believe my friend might be able to expound on it.
Here is what I discovered (God's words): For the sake of simplicity, you we'll say you got totally lost in reading while there, so missed out on all the happenings last session. The library is in fact just a dingy lean-to propped up against one of the walls of the Lighthouse District. There's one reading table, and a kindly old blind man who serves as librarian. The stacks, you estimate, contain only a few hundred books, but browsing them, you are astonished by the rarity of these tomes. Here, "The Flayed Man" by Tranicus, a desipicable tome that would get you hanged in most of the Empire; there, Vesperian Kant's immortal treatise "On the Divergence of Truth and Strength". You don't find "A Divine Architecture", of course, but do find a few interesting passages in a few books:
- You find a passage in "On the Echelons of Superior Nature in the Modern
Empire," more or less a conspiracy theory book, by Berndt Furschreck, that describes the pendant you took from Hangor's Corpse thusly:
"Rumor has it, that if one wishes access to the whole of the Empire and its darkest secrets, one must appeal to the Emperor himself. The Seal of Sigmar, bearing both the Divine Hammer and the Twin-Tailed Comet, is said to peel back the locks on the very depths of time."
The book "On the Divergence of Truth and Strength", contains on its first page the symbol of Verena; on one scale is a hammer, on the other is an iconic depiction of a burst of light. Talk to me next session if you wish to read it.
You also find a peculiar passage in a book called "Feasibility Surveys of the Karak Mountains", by Court Surveyor Heller Vorsilt; it's quite a stroke of luck, as you don't know what possessed you to read it:
"Particular to His Holiness the Emperor's request for analysis of inhabitation of the Karak Mountains, I can report that as predicted, our Lord Heldenhammer's Pillar has indeed prevented infestation of the Earth-Blooded's ancestral tunnels. I can also report that they are free of habitation; the only signs of the people of Ironbeard are some tunnels that end abruptly, as if sealed. We can only conclude that the ancient pacts are still in place, and that as with the Heartland and the North, that Sigmar's construction has indeed safeguarded the Mountains."
"On the Divergence of Truth and Strength" was written during Sigmar's crusade, at the time when the Orders of Magic were banished. The age of this writing would date just over 1100 years ago.
"Feasibility Surveys of the Karak Mountains" was written during Brandt the Macher's reign as Emperor. The text references him several times, usually addressing him, and also makes mention of the Wall that Brandt built to seal out the 'greenskins'. The age of this writing would be sometime between the year 500 and 579, when Brandt Macher died.
"On the Echelons of Superior Nature in the Modern Empire" is of more recent publishing; within the last 100 years.
We are in the year 1111. (wheh, that was a lengthy writing. I hope it wasn't too boring.) Ambros would prefer to go to Altdorf first before aquiring the axe.
